Cardiff Blues 3 Australia 31: match report

Read a full match report of the friendly match between Cardiff Blues and
Australia at the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday Nov 24, 2009.

On target: Australia winger Luke Morahan dives in to score his side's third try in their comfortable victory over Cardiff Blues on Tuesday nightPhoto: PA

By Graham Clutton

10:41PM GMT 24 Nov 2009

Though their line-up bore little resemblance to the side that will take on Wales on Saturday, the Australians will still have been mightily relieved to win this low-key contest on Tuesday night after their humiliating defeat in Scotland.

Cardiff were also well below full strength, with seven players on international duty, which meant the occasion was never likely to rival the Wallabies’ six previous non-international tour matches in the city.

In fact, with referee James Jones doing little to help, this was a game best forgotten. A welcome financial boost it might have been for the Welsh region, but it provided little cheer for a crowd of 14,622.

Ryan Cross, the sole survivor from Australia’s starting line-up in Edinburgh, swept in for a try after seven minutes and by half-time the Wallabies were 17-3 to the good courtesy of another try from Kurtley Beale and two conversions and a penalty from their highly-rated full-back, James O’Connor.

Yellow cards for the Australians’ Richard Brown and Matt Hodgson did not help a shapeless second half, but the Wallabies did at least impress in the final moments when replacement centre Luke Morahan and the lively wing, Beale, raced clear for tries.